by Maisey Yates
At nearly eight months pregnant, Sierra was in the throes of pregnancy discomfort. And making her husband fully aware of it, Colton imagined.
It still screwed with his head. That the baby of the family was the first one of them to turn into an actual adult.
“Well,” Maddy said, her voice crisp. “There you have it. Mom isn’t that bad. Sierra’s caffeine consumption however—”
“I’m round, Maddy,” Sierra said, her pale brows locking together. “Spherical. I’m entitled to complaints.”
“I’m sorry for your roundness,” Colton said. “But can we get back to my situation?”
“Your fiancée was horrible,” Maddy said.
“She was,” Sierra added. “Like...basically one of the servants of hell. And I’m sorry you got left at the altar, but it’s really just more evidence of the fact that she’s the worst.”
“The actual worst.”
“So forget about Mom,” Sierra said. “How are you?”
Both of his sisters had grown large-eyed. He shifted beneath their uncomfortably dewy gazes. “I’m fine,” he said.
He realized how true it was the moment he said it. He really was fine. Pissed, sure. Sierra was right. Leaving someone at the altar was a low move. There were any number of ways Natalie could have gone about ending things with him, and not ending them until the entire town had watched him get stood up was about the worst way to do it.
He was angry. Completely, justifiably so. But otherwise he really was fine.
“Right. That’s why you flew to Vegas for one night.” Maddy was looking at him skeptically.
He gritted his teeth. He had to do this. There was no other option. And right then and there, he knew he had to lie to his sisters too. He didn’t like it, but there really wasn’t another way to play it. He didn’t need them opposing him when it came to dealing with their mother. And, since his youngest sister was married to the town bartender, who was the commander of the town gossip hub, he had to be even more careful than he might have been otherwise.
“Well, I didn’t just go to Vegas overnight for no reason. I went to Vegas to get married.”
“You’re having a psychotic episode, aren’t you?” Maddy’s face contorted. “Please don’t tell me that you married a stripper. If some Las Vegas stripper ends up with a portion of our inheritance because you married her without a prenup...”
“I did not marry a stripper. I went to Vegas with Lydia Carpenter.”
“You did what?” Sierra’s voice had risen several octaves.
“I’m kind of surprised you didn’t hear about it already.” He watched their faces closely, using their responses as a primer for what it would look like to confess all of this to his mother. Not to mention his father.
Though he didn’t really care about his father’s response. His father’s sins were part of why he was in this mess. He had a feeling the scandal had influenced Natalie’s behavior. More than that, it was one of the biggest reasons he couldn’t afford to disappoint his mother.
“Why would we have heard about it? Did you print an announcement in the paper?” Maddy asked.
“Lydia may have...sent some texts.” He cleared his throat. “And I might have sent one or two myself.”
Maddy arched a brow. “And you didn’t text your sisters. You got married in Las Vegas to someone that we barely know and texted a bunch of random people to tell them?”
“Texting decisions were made. They were not made entirely sober.”
“So, you got drunk and you got married in Las Vegas,” Maddy said, her gaze pointed.
“It doesn’t matter if I was drunk or not. I’m married.”
“Wow,” Sierra said. “I really didn’t expect you...”
He looked down at her rounded belly pointedly. “I’m not sure you’re in a position to judge about drunken actions.”
Sierra’s pregnancy hadn’t exactly been planned. But then, her entire relationship with Ace Thompson had been more or less unplanned. And though Colton would never have thought his sister, the town’s rodeo princess, would have worked with the flannel-wearing once-confirmed bachelor, he had to admit that they did.
“I’m in love,” Sierra said, flipping her hair.
“And I stand by my decision,” he said.
He wasn’t going to go throwing around the word love. He hadn’t done so even when he’d been engaged to Natalie; he was hardly going to do so now.
Maddy noticed. “So, you marrying the woman running against Natalie’s father has nothing to do with...I don’t know, revenge?”
Lost somewhere in the murky mists of time was the reasoning behind his decision to marry Lydia. Maybe it had been about revenge. He had a feeling when they’d started taking shots together in Ace’s that it had absolutely been about revenge.
But after that? He couldn’t remember a damn thing.
So he could pretty much give her whatever answer he wanted to and it wouldn’t really be a lie. As long as it sounded reasonable.
“No. I’ve known Lydia for a long time. It’s just that I was involved with Natalie and...”
“And you were going to marry another woman anyway? But then Natalie just so happened to leave you at the altar?” Maddy asked.
“I was committed to Natalie. But then she didn’t show up for the wedding. And Lydia and I...”
“You were overcome?” Maddy pressed.
“Yes,” he said, turning his cup in a circle. “I was overcome.”
Colton had never been overcome by anything in his entire life, but if that was what Maddy needed to hear to accept the situation, then that was what he was going to tell her.
He was not going to tell her this was only temporary. He was not going to tell her that he had never felt much of anything but irritation for Lydia, and for some reason a little alcohol added to that mix had resulted in the two of them ending up in bed together.
Maybe he had been overcome. But not by emotion. And he wasn’t about to explain that to either of his sisters.
Even with Sierra visibly pregnant, and married, he preferred to pretend that neither of them would have any idea of what he was talking about.
He didn’t really have any idea of what he was talking about. Because he still couldn’t remember.
“Anyway, obviously I’m going to have to have a talk with Mom,” he continued.
“Obviously. And maybe a therapist.”
“Thank you, Madison. Would you kindly refer me to yours?” he asked, a little bit of bite in his tone.
“My therapist quit and retired to the Bahamas with all of the money I paid him. He said it was really nice that working with me was so financially successful for him, but unfortunately he was going to have to use a good portion of that money to pay for his own therapy,” his sister said drily.
“Maybe it’s just as well. Lydia is going to be moving into my house today. So I’ll be a little busy.”
“This is borderline scandalous behavior,” Maddy said, her lips curling up into a smile. “How nice of you to join the rest of us in disgrace.”
“You know, you could work a little harder to look concerned for my well-being.”
“I’m just saying,” she said, lifting her shoulder, “it is a bit daunting to be the sister of Saint Colton West. And more than a little satisfying to see your halo get tarnished.”
He looked at Sierra. “Sorry,” she said, not sounding apologetic at all. “It is kind of nice to know that you can make impulsive decisions.”
“Impulsive, maybe. But I stand by it,” he reiterated.
“You’re too stubborn to do anything else,” Sierra said.
It was easy for Sierra and Madison to sit there and give him side eye. Yes, Madison knew what it was like to be the center of a scandal. And the town, their parents and the
dressage riding community had all been unkind to her when she had been caught in an affair with an older man when she was seventeen.
Colton had wanted nothing more than to break the other man’s jaw. Before he killed him. Slowly. But far too many people had held his underage sister responsible for the whole thing.
Madison made a practice of laughing it off now, but Colton knew that she didn’t really find it all that funny.
“I’m steady. All things considered, you should appreciate that. I’m not the kind of person to run for the hills when things get difficult.” It was always easiest to turn the condemnation to Gage. Their oldest brother had left town under a cloud years ago.
“So instead you ran off and married a near stranger.”
“I told you, Lydia isn’t a stranger.”
The moment he said that he realized what a lie it was. He had seen Lydia out of the corner of his eye at events for years. Hadn’t really started speaking to her until he’d gotten involved with Natalie. And then, every time they’d spoken, it had ended pretty badly.
He always managed to get her hackles up, and he didn’t feel a whole lot more sanguine about her.
Of course, now he was going to be dealing with her long-term. In close proximity.
Maybe this was what happened when you spent years being responsible. Eventually, it all imploded and you made one decision that was so bad it rendered all the others useless.
And, thinking of said bad decision, he had to go yank it out of its den and force it over to his place. And he was imagining that was going to go over well, even though they had agreed on it yesterday. Why? Because he and Lydia couldn’t seem to have an interaction that went well.
Actually, they either didn’t go well, or they went too well.
He had the sudden impression of fingertips trailing over his bare chest and the sensation shocked his system like a bolt of lightning.
“Are you okay?” Madison asked. “You look like someone just let a hamster loose in your shorts.”
He frowned. “Thanks for that. I have to go.”
“In all seriousness,” Maddy said, standing as he did. “If this is a hostage situation, blink twice.”
“It is not a hostage situation. And that wasn’t serious.”
“Really seriously now. You aren’t having a crisis, are you?”
“I know what it’s like,” Sierra said, rising slowly and unsteadily. “That feeling of just being...lost. This—” she pointed to her stomach “—this is where that ends.”
His entire face felt like it had been pushed into a barrel of bees. “This is different. Lydia is a completely sensible choice.”
“And is that all marriage is to you? A sensible choice?” Sierra asked.
“Why else would you get married?”
Sierra practically flailed. “Love?”
“Not you,” he said, looking at Sierra, then to Maddy. “You. Why else would you get married?”
“I wouldn’t. So you’re on your own here.”
“But if you did...”
“Obviously it would be for money,” Maddy replied. “And a big penis.”
Sierra snorted. “Nice.”
“Thanks for that,” he said.
“If you can’t stand the heat, don’t come into my kitchen,” Maddy said. “Or something.”
“I’ll keep that in mind. Look, I’m going to make time to come by and see Mom. Until then, don’t tell her anything.”
“Don’t you think the news is going to make it through the gossip chain?” asked Sierra.
“The odds are high. But you said Mom was catatonic, so I’m assuming she’s avoiding the garden club at the moment.”
“She’s avoiding anything that isn’t prescribed by her doctor at the moment,” said Maddy.
“That will probably buy me some time. Until I get a chance to sit down with her. And figure out how to spin this in a way that isn’t going to cause even more trouble.”
“And until then?” Maddy tilted her head to the side, her golden-brown ponytail swinging with the motion.
“Until then...I have to deal with my wife.”
* * *
LYDIA HAD JUST hung her purse on the peg in her office at the Chamber when Sadie Garrett burst through the door.
“So. I’m going to need to hear this entire story from the beginning, with no detail spared.” She plopped down into the seat across from Lydia’s desk, her blue eyes a little too keen for Lydia’s liking.
“Good morning to you, too,” Lydia said.
“The greeting was implied.”
“We couldn’t have done this over the phone?”
Over the past year and a half she and Sadie had become fairly close, which was surprising considering they had started out as romantic rivals. Okay, they hadn’t really been romantic rivals. That implied that Lydia had ever had a fighting chance with Sadie’s gorgeous sheriff.
All she’d ever done was pine. Without any subtlety. But she didn’t want to remember that whole chapter of her life.
She was happy with the way things had turned out. She needed a friend more than she needed a boyfriend.
“No,” Sadie said, her voice getting shrill. “We cannot discuss your hasty Vegas marriage over the phone.”
“It’s way too early in the morning to discuss my hasty Vegas marriage.”
“That’s why I brought coffee.” Sadie smiled broadly, pushing a large white cup halfway across Lydia’s desk. “It’s a peppermint mocha. Full fat. The good stuff.”
“With whipped cream?”
“I’m not an animal. There is both whipped cream and little candy cane pieces.”
Lydia sat down grudgingly, pulling the cup toward herself, curling her fingers around it. It was warm, and she hadn’t realized she was cold until the heat from the cup began to seep into her skin.
She lifted the cup to her lips, the minty sweetness exploding on her tongue. “Okay,” she said, swallowing her first sip, “you have earned details.”
“Excellent. When I say details I mean...below the belt details. Details about the interior of his pants.”
Lydia winced. “Sorry. I don’t have those.”
Sadie frowned. “What?” She tilted her head to the side. “Is this one of those moments where you tell me you’re too much of a lady to do this kind of back-and-forth? Because it occurs to me that we haven’t ever talked sexual details.”
Mostly because Lydia had not had any sexual details to share with Sadie over the time they’d been friends. But she didn’t want to admit that.
“No. I’m not too much of a lady. It’s just...in order to get married in Vegas I had to get blackout drunk. Which means...”
“You don’t remember.”
“No. I don’t remember. I don’t remember anything. I don’t even know what I was thinking. I don’t like Colton. I think he’s an arrogant son of a bitch.”
“Well, that’s because he always is to you.”
“I know!” Lydia took another sip of coffee. “But...when I was standing up there with all of the other bridesmaids, and the groomsmen, and there he was... I did feel bad for him. And...what was Natalie thinking? It was her wedding, for heaven’s sake. Everyone was there. The entire town. And she just...left him there.”
“I get pity sex, Lydia. Trust me, a guy in his position really needed some, but a pity marriage I get less.”
“It just started as pity shots. We went to Ace’s and started drinking. And one thing led to another.”
Sadie held up a hand. “Again, when most people say that, they mean they went back to his place and had sex. You two went to Vegas and got married.”
“I guess that’s what happens when the person you end up taking shots with is stupid rich.”
Sadie’s eyes
went round. “Oh, that’s right. He is. I bet you he didn’t sign a prenup before this quickie marriage.”
“I don’t want his money. I don’t need his money. I earn my own. I don’t want to owe anyone anything, least of all Colton West. But I still kind of have to stay married to him.”
“Why?”
Lydia let out an exasperated sigh. “You can’t tell anybody. Because Colton is busily telling his family that this is the secret love match of the century.”
Sadie laughed, allowing a crack of sound in the small space. “And they’re going to believe that?”
“He seems to think so. But I know that you won’t believe it. You know too much.”
“I do. I’m extremely perceptive.”
“Not really so much that as I’ve told you a little too much about my feelings for Colton.”
“Fair enough. But you have to stay married to him... Why?”
“My campaign,” she said, tightening her hold on her cup. “Can you imagine? Lydia Carpenter goes to Las Vegas for a drunk quickie marriage, divorced already! It would be in the Copper Ridge Daily Tidings, and you know it.”
“Was that supposed to be the headline? Because that isn’t a good headline. It would have to be like Mayoral Candidate’s Marriage Didn’t Stay in Vegas!”
“Okay, that’s a cliché.”
Sadie shrugged. “It’s a small-town newspaper. You’re not going to get much better than cliché.”
“That’s beside the point. I’m up against an incumbent that makes this place look like it’s a monarchy.”
“Close enough,” Sadie said. “He’s been mayor for as long as I can remember.”
“He usually runs unopposed. Well, I’m opposing. And I know that I would be better for the job. I understand where the town is going...” Suddenly, she remembered Colton looking at her in the hotel room, his expression filled with disbelief as he asked her if she was stumping for votes. Maybe she had a little bit of a problem. But she had spent the past few years as a workaholic, and she didn’t really know what else to focus on. Particularly when things were chaotic. She tended to fall right back onto the topics she found easy. Right now, that was her campaign. And since her marriage, or rather, the continuation of it, was directly related to that campaign, it was particularly easy to do now.
